


Sunday Dinner: Melissa

by Tassos



Series: Lycanthropic Optics: Werewolf!Sheriff AU [6]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Conversations, Dinner, Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Werewolf Sheriff Stilinski
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-04 04:30:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12161556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tassos/pseuds/Tassos
Summary: John bumps into Melissa at the hospital. They have a long overdue chat.





	Sunday Dinner: Melissa

John isn't paying attention after he leaves the little office the nurses lent him to talk with Mr. Hampton's family. They'd arrived on Sunday from out of state, and he's looking at his notes after speaking with them about the robbery and the status of the investigation. 

"John!"

He looks up at the sound of his name, wondering if it's him or someone else being called. The perils of having a common name. His folks should have named him Noah, or something a little more distinctive.

The hospital hallway is busy with people. Visitor hours are wrapping up, and it looks like there might be a shift change going on. John scans for anyone looking at him and isn't surprised when he sees Melissa heading his way.

"Hey!" he greets her with a smile, opening his arms to accept the hug she offers him.

"I heard you were here. How are you doing?"

"Yeah, the Hampton case," John says, closing his notebook and putting in his shirt pocket. "The family arrived today."

"That's rough." Melissa's eyes are warm as she gives him a sympathetic smile. "You want to grab some coffee before you go? I just got off and I'm starving. I was going to the cafeteria to grab something before finishing my paperwork."

"Doesn't sound much like being off," John comments. He falls into step beside her, and they head toward the elevator.

"The joys of electronic medical records." Melissa rolls her eyes.

John tries to remember the last time he saw Melissa and can't quite come up with it. He wants to say sometime over the summer because he's sure he's seen her since the fiasco at the station that Scott was caught up in. The thought reminds him that it definitely hasn't been since the last full moon. He needs to tell her -- and wow, does that sound harder than it should. But it's Melissa. He's known her going on twenty years, and she knows about Scott being a werewolf so he has to tell her about himself before she learns about it from someone else. He's gotten through worse conversations, he tells himself, but that doesn't mean he doesn't feel dread's cold fingers down his spine, worrying about how she'll react.

John ends up grabbing a sandwich in the cafeteria, too, and they find a quiet table in the corner.

"So." Melissa digs in to her lasagna, but her attention remains on John. "How are you? I feel like I've barely seen you, and it's been…" she trails off, and John hears the heaviness in her voice. 

"I'm good. Well." Pleasantries are going to be impossible to hide behind.

"Scott mentioned that he'd stopped by the station with Stiles the other day. He mentioned you'd hired on Derek Hale?" Melissa jumps in before John can figure out how to start. She's concentrating on the lasagna in front of her in a way that's supposed to mean she's just making conversation, but the way her eyes glance up to his and stick for a second too long indicate that it's anything but an idle question. 

"Yeah. About that," says John slowly, and everything in Melissa's body language shifts. His nostrils flare and he breathes in her scent in a way that's becoming a new habit. He doesn't know what the mix of sharp scents mean exactly, but he's getting a sense that it's not bad. Not good either, but not bad. 

See, the thing is, Melissa has known John for as long as he's known her. When she tenses and looks at him again, really looks at him, their eyes meet, and John sees there that she knows that he knows.

"John -"

"So, I have a funny story to tell you," he says. He takes a deep breath, not feeling funny at all, and Melissa watches him the whole time he's speaking, leaning against her forearm on the edge of the table, her fork stuck in a poise halfway between up and down. John lets his eyes fix on the fork, feeling caught just like it is, as he tells her what happened that night almost a month ago.

It only takes a few minutes, and he sits back when he's done, hands loose around the sandwich he hasn't even unwrapped yet. He feels like he shouldn't be hungry, but he is. He doesn't want to eat, though, so he twirls the sandwich once before glancing up to see her reaction.

Melissa has put her fork down, and she reaches for him with her hand. "Oh John," she says like she doesn't have any other words, but her grip is tight around his fingers and it's more than enough.

"Yeah." John exhales, gripping her hand back.

"Fuck," she says then, and John can't help the helpless huff of a laugh at that because he agrees.

"Yeah. That about sums it up." Here, away from the kids, sitting with one of his oldest friends, it's absurd. "Part of me is still waiting to wake up, you know?"

"And the other part?" she asks gently.

"My body -- my sense of smell alone, and the headaches when it first happened and I couldn't control it. I'm only functioning now _because_ I hired Derek and he's close by all day when Stiles isn't there to ground me. It's something to live with. I can't ignore it." John licks his lips. Even now, he can feel himself shying away from calling it like it is. "I'm a werewolf."

Melissa's face is clear of judgement, and even though he knew she's known about Scott for months, John's still surprised she's taking it so well.

"I think you were the last person I expected to get dragged into all this," she says finally.

"Really? Even with Stiles right in the thick of it? I'm pretty sure it was only a matter of time."

"Maybe," Melissa says. "I think it's more that it feels like two worlds colliding."

"It it two worlds colliding," John says. "It's just one of them isn't supposed to exist. It was a hell of a wake up call, let me tell you."

"I know what you mean," Melissa says with feeling. She resumes eating, and now that the ice is broken, John follows suit and unwraps his sandwich.

"How did you find out. Did Scott tell you?" he asks. He'd never gotten the particulars.

So then it's Melissa's turn to tell him about a giant lizard creature and Gerard Argent, which leaves John fuming all over again about how fucked up things have been.

"Fuck," he says, mirroring her earlier reaction. "I've only gotten the bare minimum about the hunters, but Allison's grandfather?"

"I don't know all the details. Getting Scott to talk is next to impossible these days. All he wants to do is protect me from it all," Melissa says with the barest eye-roll, which John gets.

"Yeah. I've been getting that from Stiles. Derek's actually been my best source of information." He catches Melissa's somewhat skeptical expression and smiles. "He's not a bad guy, really. I don't know what the boys have told you, but I'm fairly certain he's never really recovered from losing his family." It was heartbreaking really, and John gets that too. Losing loved ones is something that marks you.

Melissa winces. "I've only met him once, and he didn't leave the best impression."

"He's in so far over his head, he's like a pregnant teenager, only instead of a baby he adopted four teenagers of his own and brought them into this dangerous new world without thinking through the consequences. Stiles has been trying to help him patch things up with Scott, and I find I can't help but want to help him make the pack thing work, and I barely even know what he means when he says that." John sighs heavily and eats his sandwich.

"And you?" Melissa asks after the moment lingers. "How are you doing with all this?" She's finished her lasagna and cradles her coffee mug in her hands.

John thinks about what he's been telling Stiles. What he told Scott. What he's been telling himself.

"I think I'm fine," he says at last.

Melissa catches what he doesn't say. "But?"

"But. I don't think it's hit me yet. Not really." John squints at her, trying to pin down that unreal feeling that this is all some weird dream-like fugue. "You know how you have a big life event, go to college, get married, and it takes a while to get over the fact that it's actually happening, and then you do, and then it's your life? I think I'm still I'm waiting for that part of me to wake up -- I'm not sure I'm ready for when that happens." 

He's a little scared of what will happen actually. The last time . . . well, he was a couple months into being a single parent last time, and he fell apart at the seams. It wasn't fun.

He doesn't have to explain any of that to Melissa. It's clear from her expression that she remembers. She'd been there for the last time. Fuck, she'd gotten him through the last time, made sure Stiles survived it. It's one of those debts that John is never going to be able to repay.

"So you've been distracting yourself with helping the boys," she says.

"Yeah, I guess." It's not how John would have put it, but he's not entirely sure she's wrong. She's giving him a look now that says she sees right through him, so she's probably right. 

The thing is, he doesn't know any other way to be. He got into law enforcement to help people and stayed because of the community at its heart. He's seen every layer of Beacon Hills, rich, poor, and everything in between, and the one thing he's learned over and over and over again is that people are more alike than they are different. It still surprises him sometimes, but its nonetheless true. People need each other, they need affection and validation and sometimes just a hand to help them up without demanding anything of them in return. Helping Derek and the kids gel into a group of people who don't hate each other, is not something he can turn away from, even if he wanted to.

"Well, when it does hit you, I'm here," Melissa says. "I can't say I've gone through what you're going through, but I feel like I've adjusted to knowing my son is a creature of the night okay. And I've got wine." She grins, and John smiles in return, grateful.

"I'm glad you know," he says. "It makes me feel so much better knowing I'm not the only one over thirty in the club."

"We can start our own coffee clutch," Melissa says. "Bitch about our kids and how they like to wake up late for school and break the bathroom sink off the wall."

"He didn't." John feels the laugh coming on.

"Oh yeah. Water everywhere. I don't even remember what bullshit excuse he gave me at the time. It was before I knew, but I could have killed him." Melissa's chuckling too as she tells the story.

"Thank God I haven't done that yet," John says. "I don't even want to think about replacing the pillows I've accidentally clawed up in my sleep."

Melissa, however, is just getting started. Scott's early days as a werewolf had been hard on the furniture, and even now, after Melissa is in the loop and Scott has much better control, he still managed to make a mess of the deck furniture. Although Melissa says she suspects Stiles is as much at fault for that one.

It's good to just chat. Melissa is a good storyteller and keeps John snickering. By the time they finish their coffee, he's feeling lighter. It's good to have the reminder that even weird supernatural shit crashing into real life is stupidly funny every once in a while, the same way most things that seemed important and above bathroom jokes really aren't. It's good to hang out with a friend.

They finally look at the time and concede that an hour is a sufficient break time from work. John holds out a hand for Melissa's trash and pitches it as they walk out. They really do need to get together more often. Maybe a coffee clutch is what they need.

"Hey, you free next weekend?" John asks, as another idea strikes him. They pause in the hallway just outside of the cafeteria. Melissa will be going back to her station soon to finish her paperwork, and John will be going to the parking lot and then back to his station to wrap up his notes.

"I don't have my schedule yet, but maybe," Melissa replies. "Why?"

"You want to meet the rest of the pack?"

"I've met a few of them, but that's one thing Scott tries to keep me away from. He's not going to like it."

"Yeah, well, I'm not asking you as Scott's mom," John says, though he knows she can't escape that role. "He gets to have his friends involved. Why I can't I?" 

Melissa gives him a playfully suspicious look. "Is this a ploy to make sure he behaves around Derek?"

"That'd be a nice side benefit," John says with a half smile before getting serious again. "But no. You're going through this, too. Things with Stiles have gotten better now that I'm not the sidelines. Maybe you shouldn't still be there either."

John can't quite read all the emotions that pass over Melissa's face, or the scents they carry with them. She takes his hand after a moment, squeezing it, and that he gets. Comfort, gratitude, understanding. 

"I'd like that," she says.

John squeezes her hand back and nods. "I'll see you later."


End file.
